The DC Press Corpse has a one-size-fits-all solution to the disagreements between President Obama and the Republican Congress: a better personal relationship. Take, for example, Dana Milbank’s latest:
“I’m a pretty friendly guy,” President Obama said near the end of his White House news conference Monday afternoon.
The claim might have been a touch more plausible if he hadn’t spent the bulk of the previous hour demonstrating just how adversarial he could be. Indeed, there was no precipitating event that led him to schedule the last-minute session in the East Room — lending credibility to the theory that he summoned reporters so he could bait Republicans.
Or how about Jackie Calmes’ question at yesterday’s press conference:
I’d like to ask you, now that you’ve reached the end of your first term, starting your second, about a couple of criticisms — one that’s longstanding, another more recent. The longstanding one seems to have become a truism of sorts that you’re — you and your staff are too insular, that you don’t socialize enough. […]
Since the solution is so simple, let’s apply it to another fractured relationship, the one between the New York Times (Calmes’ paper) and the Washington Post (Milbank’s). Just look at the editorial pages of those two newspapers, which display a shocking lack of comity in the once-peaceful world of major media. What can we do to rectify that awful situation? When’s the last time Pinch Sulzburger flew Don Graham to Manhattan in the Times’ jet for a show? Don “likes” a lot of Dalia Lithwick’s work at Slate on Facebook, but are Don and Pinch even Facebook friends? Do they follow each other on Twitter? Has there been an exchange of sepia-toned images on Instagram?
We all know that Pinch’s son is an accomplished journalist – at 28 he already had a byline at the Times – so why isn’t he writing for the Post, Luke Russert style? The Times could trade him for Don’s daughter Laura, who’s working at Slate (a Post property). Am I being silly to think that an arranged marriage might be the solution to what ails the Times/Post relationship?
Robin G.
If only Hitler and Churchill had had a few beers together!
(Yes, I’m going straight for the Godwin. Why waste time?)
Maude
They don’t like Obama not treating them as royalty.
If Obama held a lot of parties it would be, he doesn’t work.
The WH Press Corps is awful.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Fixed.
Hill Dweller
This sad attempt to rationalize the wingnuts’ behavior is a favorite among the Village fossils(Brokaw, Cokie Roberts, etc.).
BGinCHI
Lawrence O’Donnell put paid to this stupid “why can’t we all get along” fantasy of governance.
And I thought Obama did too by reminding that stupid fucking reporter that democracy is messy.
Why would sane people who want to govern responsibly play nice and get social with people who act in bad faith, use race baiting, and are dicks?
Politics ain’t country club.
Mudge
We all know that Chamberlain and Hitler had a few beers.
Gin & Tonic
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: Metaphor alert. Paging Erik Loomis, who has the stick concession.
Gin & Tonic
@BGinCHI: Am I the only one who finds L O’D insufferable?
cmorenc
So the underlying problem between Obama and the GOP caucus in both the House and the Senate is that Obama hasn’t invited them over often enough for some burgers on the barbie? That Obama hasn’t played enough rounds of golf with them? Would going to the Kentucky Derby with Mitch McConnell have helped eliminate GOP obstructionism in the Senate?
So the problem is that it’s Obama who’s been acting like an uncivil barbarian, injuring the fe-fes of sensitive GOP congresscritters?
ruemara
These people are morons.
Dave
Since we’ve already been Godwinned, I’ll say the model the press corps’ seems to have when it comes to “socializing” is like Southern plantation owner gentlemanhood. They’re uneasy with so-called bickering and partisanship because it smacks of struggling for power. They want to dress it up with carnations and elaborate hand-shaking rituals.
What they really want is power to be exerted in such a way as no one notices what’s happening.
Chris
One minute he’s an out-of-touch Washington politician captured by the system, the next minute he’s not kissing enough Official Washington ass. One minute he’s accused of not working hard enough, the next minute he’s accused of not attending enough fancy dinner parties.
These avenues of questioning are distressingly illogical.
I blame Obama.
cmorenc
Part of the problem is that the Village sees Washington after-hours as an endless series of cocktail and dinner parties, where contacts are continually made, refreshed, and lubricated. Sometimes very well lubricated.
Culture of Truth
The longstanding one seems to have become a truism of sorts
Oh there are truisms on the Internet about you too, Dana.
jrg
If Allah really, truly loved us, some mook would have howled “YOU LIE!” during Jackie Calmes’ question.
NotMax
@Maude
If memory serves, the Obamas planned and held regular Wednesday cocktail parties for Congresscritters from both sides of the aisle for a full year after the first inauguration.
And were lambasted by the right-wing slavering mobs for “wasting” taxpayer dollars.
Suffern ACE
If only our president would have a drinking problem. Since he doesn’t, what good would it do him to start a drinking session with the Speaker?
WarMunchkin
Do any of these jackasses realize that Obama *did* have question time in front of the Republicans and kicked their asses on live television? It was so horrible for them that they never invited him back.
Keith
When’s the last time Dana Milbank invited Nico Pitney out to have a few beers?
Ben Cisco
The Village is as big a threat to the country as the NeoConfederates are.
They should be treated accordingly.
Villago Delenda Est.
Hill Dweller
This is the same group of people who claimed Obama, after building the most diverse cabinet ever in his first term, had a diversity problem. And they did it at the Republicans’ behest.
Sterling
You know, if Obama and Wayne LaPierre went down to the range and shot off a bunch of rounds from AR-15s, they could settle the whole gun control issue in an afternoon.
It would be just a couple of guys talking about their guns and stuff. It doesn’t have to be weird. I mean, they don’t have to have sex with each other or anything. Like maybe they’d do it- but that would just be breaking the tension.
CarolDuhart2
Obama is guilty of remembering that he has a life beyond and after the Beltway. He spends his social time with family, old friends from Chicago and in Hawaii. In return he gets his confidences kept and a chance to be around people who have always loved him for who and what he is.
Why should he spend a lot of it with the insincere and frankly bigoted members of the Beltway?
Chris
@Hill Dweller:
They’ve got a fascinating thing going where they just can’t understand why those nice, reasonable, successful white men don’t get along with them. So they keep searching and searching for ways to resolve the regrettable misunderstanding by showing them that they really are all on the same side, and it gets more and more desperate as each attempt invites only more contempt and bile from the GOP. (Needless to say, they don’t stay awake wondering why poor people, working class people, and nonwhite people don’t like them. These people don’t matter).
I mean, I understand the concept of being hung up on a girl who’s not interested, but not when it lasts this many decades and they still can’t get over it.
Joy
Let’s see. In the first few months of his first term, he invited Republicans over to watch the SuperBowl – how many showed up? He invited them over for other events that I can’t even remember and he was rebuffed. After that many attempts, I’d say fuck ’em too. The insufferable Washington insular press – if he did manage to get a few of them to show up I’d suppose the menu wouldn’t be good enough. These guys need to find some real issues to report on.
Maude
Dana Milbank is still angry over not being able to cover a sporting event in which one of Obama’s daughters was playing.
Remember that?
Thor Heyerdahl
@cmorenc: Well lubricated, and wondering what the heck this “Kentucky” jelly is and why the lobbyist just handed them a tube.
Dennis G.
Let the healing begin…
GregB
I for one am quite upset at how President Obama has shown his deep seated hatred for white people by only hiring white people for his second cabinet.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Gin & Tonic: no, but sometimes he brings a good perspective from actually having been in the room when the negotiations like the ones are so smugly discussed by pundits and bloggers and commenters.
I saw yesterday Bloomberg calling on Obama to “build relationships”, like Bill Clinton did, using ‘the golf course as an office’. So let’s review, off the top of my head:
*Clinton’s budget and tax plan barely passed Congress controlled by Democrats
*that same Congress scuttled his health care plan
*at least two Dem Senators switched parties, Nighthorse Campbell and Shelby, and it seems to me I’m forgetting one other
*Bob Kerrey called him ‘an extraordinarily good liar’
*Newt Gingrich actually did shut down the government
*and, of course, impeachment
*odds and ends: Dan Burton, Travelgate, Filegate, Christams-card-gate, et cetera, et cetera….
also, too, Clinton was dealing with a Republican party that still included people like Roth, Chaffee and Jeffords, and at least a few of similar stripes in the House.
David in NY
I don’t recall Harry Truman playing pok*r with any Republicans.
dmsilev
I remain truly impressed with Obama’s self-control. I would have been tempted to respond with “that’s an absolutely stupid question, and if you had the brains and self-awareness of a barnacle with Alzheimer’s you’d realize that. I’m going to call up whatever school you graduated from and ask them to revoke your degree.”
McJulie
They are desperate for a different narrative, aren’t they? The obvious truth is too painful. Obama is obviously a friendly guy — look at all the little moments of him reaching out to people, fist-bumping janitors, clowning around with gymnasts, getting lifted into the air by a pizza-shop owner. He likes to shoot baskets, play fantasy football, watch science fiction movies.
But Republicans are completely un-charmed. They act like he’s the devil incarnate. Why could that be?
The obvious truth — that Republicans hate him no matter what he does because he’s a non-white Democrat — is just too painful for the traditional media to accept, causes them too much cognitive dissonance. So they have to pretend it’s something Obama is doing wrong.
Alex S.
I think I quit that post after the third meta-level.
McJulie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s funny how right-leaning “centrists” and hard core leftists alike, who despised Clinton when he was in office, suddenly think he’s the greatest president ever.
I do think Clinton was better than the consensus at the time. But sheez, I can’t be the only person around here who actually remembers the 90s, can I?
merrinc
@Gin & Tonic:
No, you are not. And it pains me because when he was a guest on KO, I was quite fond of him.
As for the Dick Whisperer, fuck him and the rest of the press corpse. That wish is extended to the ever-odious David Gregory and the panel of idiots he had on after Obama a couple weeks ago because they all harped on the same moronic narrative. If only Obama would reach out…
Hey, everyone remember how George W. Bush used to have the Dems to the WH for sleepovers on a regular basis? And who could forget those all-in-good-fun D vs. R snowball fights on the White House Lawn with hot chocolate served in the West Wing afterward? Ah, the good old days, when our reps had to unlink hands and stop singing Kumbaya long enough to vote on bi-partisan legislation.
Paul
@Gin & Tonic:
Probably not. But for me he is the only worth watching now that Maddow has become unwatchable. Her criticism of Hagel made no sense.
Raven
@merrinc: I like Lawrence. Motherfucker goes for the throat.
Chris
@Dave:
Lesson Number One on being a Southern Gentleman: never side with the hired help against another Southern Gentleman, even if the hired help is completely right and no matter what a thick-witted chowderhead the Gentleman is. It’s just not done. People have a place and don’t you forget it.
Let me know if you see any similarity with the Washington Press Corps’s relationship with Wall Street, the Republican Party and other 1%ers…
Paul
Maybe Mr Millbank should do some research before he throws out these baseless accusations against the President:
Glenn Thrush reports that House Speaker John Boehner “has been by the White House for most holiday parties — and he played that legendary round of golf with POTUS a couple of years back — but he declined Obama’s invitation to screen ‘Lincoln.’ So did McConnell, along with Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME).”
“House Republicans have routinely turned down White House invites (as Democrats did under Obama’s predecessor), with the high point of bipartisan schmoozing being a sparsely attended 2011 BBQ Obama threw for newly-elected Republicans after the 2010 midterms.”
Even the newer lawmakers are taking part: “One Republican freshman who didn’t go was Rep. Renee Ellmers whose flack said, with admirable candor, ‘She declined because she chose not to go.'”
Raven
@Paul: her constant whining about fucking coming home parades for vets really wore me out. That shit doesn’t mean a goddamn thing.
scav
I can’t decide if the entitled gits are more upset that the administration isn’t prostrating itself in social thrall to their media gatekeeper masters of created reality selves or at the admin not prostrating itself in social and governing thrall to the approved list of minority leaders. seriously, corps, go on a long walk on a short poer into the atlantic so we know where you all are (if we should ever feel the need).
catclub
@McJulie: “suddenly think he’s the greatest president ever.”
Yep. The right thinks ‘I obviously survived his presidency,
but clearly this one will end in fire and death, so he was ok.’
WereBear
Precisely.
Just one of the many, many reasons I predicted President Obama’s second term would be Obama II: The Butt Kicking. He tried all the stuff they said would work… and it didn’t.
Now, to get stuff done.
Chris
@McJulie:
I wasn’t even a fucking teenager when Clinton left office, and *I* remember better.
I also remember the Clinton hate reaching another peak in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when suddenly the attacks and all the problems in our national security were his fault; it was Carter Derangement Syndrome all over again (until Bush’s repeated and insistent fuckups meant it was no longer possible to blame it all on Bill).
mdblanche
@BGinCHI:
The problem is the Village idiots see that as a bad thing.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hey Bloomberg, the President is taking up your signature issue. You know, the radioactive one. That’s not gonna help with the building relationships thing. So, are you gonna put your money where your mouth is (we all know you can afford it) or were you just concern trolling about that too?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Joy: just recently, McConnell and Boehner refused an invitation to a WH screening of Lincoln, and Boehner has refused all invitations to state dinners, I think three since he became Speaker. I hate big parties, and would feel as bad as I looked in that kind of formal attire, but it seems to me that if you’re the third, if not second, ranking member of the fucking government, state dinners are part of your fucking job.
Shinobi
Why don’t we just cut to the chase and talk about about how Obama isn’t very “respectful” of his Republican colleagues, since we can’t use the word “uppity” without getting lambasted by the evil PC police.
Villago Delenda Est
There is nothing wrong with The Village that a shitload of tumbrels won’t take care of.
Hoodie
@Gin & Tonic: No, I’m sure Dana Milbank feels that way, too. I guess being frequently right has that effect.
handsmile
That the White House reporter (Jackie Calmes) of this country’s leading newspaper (NYT) chose to ask this question (of all the possible topics to choose, e.g. climate change, negotiations with Karzai on Afghanistan) is now my definitive example of the utter corruption and venality of the American corporate media. It’s truly disgusting. (of course an even better example will soon supplant it)
While the register of the Village media’s ineptitude is now one of pettiness (with Obama) rather than sloth (with Dubya), Stephen Colbert’s savage mockery of it at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner remains fully potent and true.
Chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I can’t imagine why the people whose congressional leader, not even a decade ago, was blurting out that if Strom Thurmond had been followed back in 1948 we wouldn’t have “all these problems,” would feel uncomfortable watching a movie with a black man about the abolition of slavery.
Can’t imagine it at all.
Paul
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
In boehner’s defense; he hasn’t done his job for the last two years, why start now?
Shinobi
@McJulie: Absolutely this. It’s too much to process that half our country is insane with racism, so they go for denial instead. Humans are very flawed.
Villago Delenda Est
@Raven:
Well, the coming home parade is a public acknowledgement of service rendered, so that we can promptly forget about the broken young men and women that are churned out by the thousands by these wonderful adventures that we report on, but never get near, nor will we allow our children to get near, they’re too fucking important to see what the fuck all the explosions are about, dontcha know?
gene108
I think the press corp really misses the snappy nicknames Bush, Jr. gave them.
Maybe Obama should quit being so serious and hand out a few nicknames.
BGinCHI
@Raven: Agreed. He’s kind of dickish, but he’s our dickish.
piratedan
golly gee whiz Dana, I might be a little reluctant to hang out with a group of folks who have been openly racist and threatening armed insurrection and have questioned the validity of my last two elections and have offered an unprecedented amount of obstruction while I’m attempting to save our collective asses. Christ in a sidecar.
Ted & Hellen
If PO really is NOT schmoozing and socializing with beltway parasites as much as they’d like, then I salute him for it.
These people are disgusting.
WereBear
@gene108: Mmmm. It might just be too tempting, know whut I mean?
Chris
@Shinobi:
FTFY.
They have no trouble at all assuming the worst from “black racists,” “union thugs,” “illegal immigrants,” “Islamo-fascists” and “liberal elitists.” It’s just when “respectable” rich white people come under suspicion that there’s a mind block.
? Martin
Man, I really want Obama to stand up there in the presser and just lay it out:
“America was built on hard work and dedication. A fair paycheck and safe working environment is all that is asked by 100 million American workers. They don’t need cocktail parties and golf outings as incentives to go to work each day and do their job, and neither should their elected officials. Congress doesn’t work for me – they work for the 125 million voters that turned out two months ago to vote. Congress needs to do their damn job like everyone else in this country does and stop acting like aristocracy.”
That’s really the bottom line.
Villago Delenda Est
@McJulie:
I can’t imagine. It’s pretty fucking obvious that irredeemable scum like Milbank and Calmes are paid very well not to even go there and imagine why Obama, who charms the hell out of everyday people, can’t charm the nihilist offal of the GOP.
I know some tire of the Blazing Saddles references, but damn, that movie hit the fucking bullseye in so many ways. I’m glad Mel Brooks, at least, has been around to witness this. It’s too bad about Harvey Keitel, Slim Pickens, and especially Madeline Kahn. They would have enjoyed the afterglow as that movie has been vindicated again and again over the last four years.
MattF
In fact, the Village’s very very very favorite kind of person is a moderate Republican. The fact that there are no (as in zero) moderate Republicans in Congress is just not accepted.
handsmile
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Surely Holy Joe, “the nation’s conscience,” deserves mention in your Hall of Infamy from the Clinton years.
@Gin & Tonic:
For me at least, O’Donnell has become far more sufferable in recent months. Increasingly he doesn’t even try to hide his contempt for the GOP nihilists. I do wish, however, that guests such as Krystal Ball, Ari Melber, and Steve Kornacki appeared with less frequency (or contributed with a little more insight or wit.)
O’Donnell’s disemboweling of Scott Brown last night was one of the funniest bits I’ve seen for months anywhere (though it’s possible that its comic genius was most evident to those who grew up with Massachusetts/Boston accents and lingo. To hear “crapload” on television was a moment of sheer bliss.)
Villago Delenda Est
@gene108:
Dana Milbank already has one.
As for Jackie Calmes, how about “Jive-Ass Honky Beeyotch”?
Chris
@MattF:
Accounts for the breathless love for Chris Christie.
japa21
I am looking forward to the press dinner. I am sure Obama’s joke writers are cooking up some dozies. The thing is, the jokes he tells about himself are frequently subtle attacks at other people, like the press. The targets are just too stupid to realize it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
ah, yes, and Clinton and the Lieberstain were actual friends, going back twenty years or more to Yale Law, IIRC.
Hill Dweller
Boehner and McDonnell couldn’t be bothered to come to the phone when the President called them on election night.
The Village is comprised of cowardly hacks. They have to retreat to the both sides horseshit.
GregB
@Villago Delenda Est:
It took me a minute.
Harvey Korman, not Keitel.
schrodinger's cat
The GOP and its leadership both in Congress and the media, has spent the last 4 years demonizing everything that Obama does, and it is Obama and his team who are insular. MSM hacks are hacktacular.
Villago Delenda Est
@GregB:
You’re right…got my Harveys mixed up.
Mike E
@BGinCHI: 2nd’d…I adore his two hand crowbar technique to The Donald’s dome, a real joy.
AxelFoley
@McJulie:
Nope. Noticed this during the election season. All of a sudden, Bill was the GOP’s BFF. Everybody Loves Bill.
But, they spent the 90s going after Bill and Hillary like they stole something.
Funny how the media hasn’t touched on this.
Hill Dweller
Apparently the WH released a long list of events Republican declined to attend after being invited.
Chuck Todd said that doesn’t count. It has to be informal meetings.
F’n hacks.
Jamey
Wait, Dana Milbank is a BOY?!
Alex S.
@Jamey:
There is no Dana, only Zuul.
Jamey
@Villago Delenda Est: I think Harvey Keitel would have made an AWESOME Hedley Lamarr!
AxelFoley
@Ted & Hellen:
T&H with no insults for President Obama?
I’m at a loss for words, so I’ll leave it at that.
mk3872
Who would like to bet against my guess that Millbank and the rest of the DC press would have excoriated Obama if he was “too social” and spent “too much time partying” instead of doing Presidenty things?
Just wondering …
Petorado
The Beltway media sure knows about being insular and not socializing enough, considering how they treat bloggers who try to attend WH pressers and other media events. Come on Mr. Calmes, invite John Cole and Doug J over for a few drinks some day. Why doesn’t the DC insider media give us all a lesson in comity by finally allowing equal access for the Fourth Estate’s red-headed stepchild — the blogging community.
El Cid
If only our nation’s Tea Party leaders had spent more time reaching out to socialize with the liberal leaders they were busy denouncing as traitors, Stalinists, and tyrants.
Suffern ACE
@mk3872: Imagine the complaints if the President started golfing, or if he went with his wife to visit the leaders of other countries. Why the complaints would be pretty much the same as those we have now.
Wat
Every time I see a RW commentator whining about “politeness”, I hear it as “why won’t the President just turn white already?”
Suffern ACE
@Hill Dweller: Yes. The president should just drop in on people….
So the upshot of this past two weeks – from concerns about his insularity to the howls that he’s betrayed the women folk in his cabinet picks or just does “line of sight” promotions is that he needs to get out of his circle. I’m wondering who they’re trying to get into his circle. They’re all bitchy about not having a friend inside, that’s for sure.
I’m actually happy that they’re not coming over more often. I’d love Obama to invite Chuck Todd over, with and explanation that he made a new years resolution to learn to suffer fools better.
Ted & Hellen
@? Martin:
Please email this to Obama.
gene108
@Villago Delenda Est:
Your nickname is far to vulgar. I’d go with something that could have a double meaning, like say Electric Cucumber.
IowaOldLady
The model I see is junior high, where who like who is all that matters. Anyone who’s had a real job knows you do it even if you don’t get along with your coworkers. It’s your job. Your social life is elsewhere.
patroclus
Yet another vapid piece of non-journalism from Dana Milbank; something he does quite well.
Darkrose
@Gin & Tonic: A little of him goes a long way. He can be good, especially when he goes into impassioned mode about something he cares about. Unfortunately, he spends too much time patting himself on the back for his own cleverness.
Darkrose
@handsmile: L O D needs more Joy Reid.
Actually, MSNBC needs more Joy Reid.
Okay, let’s be honest: Sister-Girl is HOT.
Tonybrown74
@Maude:
They cannot accept that he’s not the butler …
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
They have to talk about people being mean to each other because they seem incapable of talking about the debt ceiling in any constructive way.
They can’t, for instance, ever point out that Republicans are asking Obama to negotiate even though he has not an once of power to do anything about going over the debt ceiling. How do you negotiate when you have nothing to give?
The power to spend is given to Congress by the Constitution. The power to raise the debt ceiling is also given to Congress. Congress is demanding that the POTUS fix a problem he has no power to fix, yet somehow he’s the dick. The mind, it boggles.
grandpa john
@Ben Cisco: Agreed, I have been saying this for years.
OGLiberal
@Villago Delenda Est: Is Milbank Turtle Neck or Tan Pants?